Chapter 23—(1857) A Year of Many Visions

Three pages of the Review and Herald published on January 1, 1857, carried letters from ministers and laymen addressed to the editor. Eight of the twelve were a response in one way or another to the proposal made by James White a month earlier that the message to the Laodicean church had its application in the experience of the Sabbathkeeping Adventists. Five weeks later, an overwhelming percentage of the letters indicated a concern and a willingness to accept the divine reproof and profit by it. This was typical of the response.1BIO 350.1

By mid-January, James and Ellen White, somewhat rested from the strenuous journey to Waukon, Iowa, were ready to move into the field visiting the churches “in the different States.” The first was at Hillsdale, some thirty-five or forty miles southeast of Battle Creek. They were there for the weekend of February 13 to 15 to attend a conference called by J. H. Waggoner to meet in Waldron's Hall. The first report of the meeting is found in the Review and Herald of March 19, in the form of a letter written by Louisa M. Morton to friends in Wisconsin. They, with her, had been in sympathy with the dissidents in Wisconsin who were turning their backs on the third angel's message. She was visiting in Michigan and chanced to attend the Hillsdale meeting. She wrote what she observed, describing the conference and a vision given to Ellen White.1BIO 350.2